Beyond the Gates of Hell
by commix-dreamer
Summary: The Ruler of Hell has decided to give three birthday wishes to the young Uchiha. In the process, Sasuke has unknowingly sent Naruto to Hell. How will Konoha survive an attack from their undead comrades? Contains yaoi/ yuri. SasuNaru and HinaSaku.
1. Prologue

**A/N:** This contains yaoi/ yuri. If you don't like it, don't read. This fanfic is written in honour of opaque_fantasy's birthday.

**Beyond the Gates of Hell**

**Prologue**

A scream echoed across the endless stretch of fiery red mountains and voidless black sky. In the middle of the area, an active volcano sat, spitting flaming boulders every few seconds. A black-robed figure stood at the mouth of the volcano, carrying a bright orange briefcase at his side. Another scream echoed across the dark area, coming from the magma in the volcano.

The black figure sighed before he raised his free hand up towards the sky. A second later, a long chain appeared from the middle of the volcano and floated up into the black clouds in the sky. The metal chain continued pulling upwards until the end of the chain appeared followed by a skeleton hand, then body.

The undead skeleton hung on the chain, clicking its teeth rapidly, as if it was trying to speak. A moment later, a gust of wind blew towards the skeleton and surrounded it with high speed.

As the wind twisted and turned around the skeleton, pieces of human flesh and blood flew towards it and embedded itself on the skeleton. During its progess in returning to its true form, the undead being struggled in agony as parts of its body sewed themselves together in the most painful way possible. Soon after, the clicking of teeth was replaced with a man's screams of torture.

The figure gave a wicked grin at the man and laughed mockingly at him. "Well, well, well, Uchiha-san, I think it's safe to say that you're getting used to your punishment here at this hell hole, hm?"

Uchiha Itachi stared emotionlessly at the figure and said, "I deserve this punishment."

The figure smiled evilly. "Oh, yes you do, Uchiha-san. But I'm starting to think that you are enduring all this pain just so you could protect someone else. A certain Last Uchiha perhaps."

At that, Itachi's head snapped up. Anger and hatred flooded his face.** "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HIM!"**

The figure smiled amusedly at him and said, "Oh, don't worry Uchiha-san, as I have no intentions on hurting him. I just want to give a present for the youngest Uchiha."

Itachi glared at him, confused.

The figure's grin widened. "Just 3 birthday wishes."


	2. Chapter 1

**Beyond the Gates of Hell**

**Chapter 1**

Kunais whizzed past in the forest outside Konoha's walls. Shinobis jumped from tree to tree, dodging everything they could even though they were unable to see what was attacking them. A few dead comrades lay on the ground below them where they'd fallen, giving a boost of determination to the remaining survivors.

Out of the fifty shinobis that were on patrol at the clearing east of the village, only four of them remained after the ambush that followed. They were assigned this mission because of the sudden problems that the Kumo ninjas were causing by trespassing Konoha's borders without the Hokage's permission. What was unexpected however, was that all it took was a lone figure to take down almost twenty of Konoha's men in a dizzying instant.

After the first wave of attack, the others desperately tried to retaliate but to no avail. The last fifteen that were left tried to flee back to the village but one by one they were picked off by the figure that came speeding towards them. By the time they got into formation, they were left with only four nins.

"They're all dead! Every single one of them! He can't be human! He's a monster!" the remaining chunnin yelled fearfully. He looked back only to find the 'monster' closely tailing them. He yelled again, this time addressing his three silent ANBU comrades, "You people are heartless! Our people were murdered like pigs in the slaughterhouse. You guys just stood there!"

The three ANBU members gave no sign that they heard anything from their junior comrade. They kept pushing forward, their nimble feet leaping from tree branch to tree branch.

"Say something dammit!" The chunnin snapped in frustration.

The ANBU leading the pack seemed utterly unaffected by the carnage they had just witnessed, his snake mask revealing a pair of cold and lifeless eyes. "I could have killed him," he said in a bored tone to his two guards.

"That's not part of your job," the ANBU with the dog mask snarled at him.

"Lives were lost. Wasted. Because you guys didn't let me do anything to stop it," he continued indifferently.

Dog growled back, "NOT. PART. OF YOUR. JOB."

"That's enough both of you," Hawk ordered.

The chunnin at the back grew impatient with their seeming lack of response. "Why won't you answer me? Are you ashamed of yo-ack!" The chunnin's words were cut short as a large axe swung through his neck and lodged itself on a tree trunk. His decapitated head still rested on the blade, forever frozen in a grimace of anger as the remainder of his corpse snapped twigs and branches with its tumble to the ground.

"And now the last one," the leader ANBU sighed back impatiently. "We've lost a total of 50 nins in just one attack. I wonder what the higher-ups will say about this. At least I won't be blamed for running away with my tail between my legs."

Dog let out feral growl before throwing himself through one of the trees and coming out smoothly from the other side. The hole he made in the tree caused the top part to fall behind them, slowing the 'monster' down. Taking a deep breath, he calmly spoke. "Your mission here was simple- evaluate the actions of the Konoha corps. Your mission is now complete, you must return to base."

Snake gave a short curse and hoped that their attacker would target him next because that was the only other way he could be excused from deviating from his mission parameters. Unfortunately for him, the man who just wiped out all 50 of Konoha's men somehow sensed that the snake-masked nin was of a higher calibre and fell back.

As the ANBU group drew closer to the village, the man behind them slowed down and eventually stopped, only to sink back into the darkness. When they arrive the village gates, the group slow down enough to sign their ANBU names with the guard station there before shooting onto the roof of a nearby house. It was a silent agreement between them that they would report to the Hokage first before doing anything else.

When they arrived at the Hokage tower, instead of taking the stairs below them, they jumped higher into the sky, towards the Hokage's office. Sensing another presence other than their Hokage, they hid outside the Hokage's office, not wanting to barge into something that could potentially be an important meeting. With their heightened ANBU senses, they were able to 'accidentally' hear what was going on and were surprised to find who was in there.

"…don't need to feel scared, Naruto-kun. I'm sure that he would feel the same."

"…But Hinata-chan, I couldn't help it! It scares the shit out of me whenever I think about it!"

At that, the three ANBU nins looked at each other. Under their ANBU masks, they each wore an expression of disbelief. Forgetting rather quickly the reason they were there for and their high ranking statues, as one, they leaned closer towards the Hokage's office.

Uzumaki Naruto, the 6th Hokage of Konohagakure, was pacing back and forth in his office with his traditional Hokage robes sweeping across the floor while Hyuga Hinata was sipping tea calmly on her chair in front of the Hokage's desk.

"The stress is killing me, Hinata-chan! I don't know what to do anymore," the blond said miserably as he fell into his chair, now facing the Hyuga Heiress. Placing his chin on the desk, he closed his eyes sadly before opening them again in determination, "And I think I'm going to give up on him."

Taking another sip before gently placing her cup on the desk, Hinata closed her eyes in deep thought. "Well, Naruto-kun, that was what you said the last time I was here. And in my opinion, I really doubt that would happen," she smiled fondly at him.

Naruto stared at the smiling Hinata before cracking a defeated and tired smile on his face. "I guess you're right, Hinata-chan."

Picking up her now cold cup of tea of the desk, she walked to the side of the room where a small kettle was placed on a small stool and refilled her cup. Naruto sat quietly in thought as he waited for his friend. Not noticing the woman, even though she was wearing one of her many bright colored kimonos, was sitting again until he saw from the corner of his eye a cup of warm tea offered by her. Hinata smiled at her friend's puzzled look, "You're going to need it, Naruto-kun," she reasoned.

Naruto smirked at her and took the tea from her, finishing his tea off with a large gulp. Putting his hand up as a signal to enter, it took less than a few seconds for the hiding ANBU outside to realize that their Hokage was calling for them and another to appear in a whirlwind of leaves in front of him. All three ANBU nins were kneeling on one knee towards their Hokage as a sign of respect even though they were friends with the Hokage. None indicated in any way that they had been listening in on the young Hokage's distressing conversation. Each of them were thinking the same thing, 'Did the Hokage really not know that they were outside or did he just not care on who would listen in' before concluding that is was most likely that latter since he wasn't made Hokage for nothing.

The 6th Hokage nodded before saying in a grave tone, "Report."

Snake, the leader of the team, stood and instantly looked towards the Hyuga Heiress, who was silently sipping on her tea at the side window, looking downwards at the people outside as if what was happening in the Hokage's office did not interest her one bit. Naruto glanced at her before looking back at the ANBU. "She stays."

The ANBU leader nodded before reporting his mission status to the Hokage in a monotone "I am here to report about the surveillance mission you gave me. Fifty of our chunnin were send out to capture any Kumo nins that tried to pass into Konoha territory without your permission. But unfortunately, we didn't foresee a one-man army taking down our forces before we could get into formation." Before Naruto could respond, Snake added sarcastically, almost like an afterthought "If only you didn't assign your guard dogs to watch over me and let me act accordingly by getting rid of the enemy, maybe our fifty chunnins would still be alive, eh, Hokage-sama."

Hawk and Dog, who were standing patiently and quietly behind Snake, had murderous auras coming out of them, but the blond was not infected nor was he impressed with the ANBU's words. Their all powerful Hokage merely chuckled at the ANBU's insult and obvious accusation against him. He gave a tired smile with his eyes closed to his ANBU nins. "I am expecting full written reports from all three of you by tomorrow morning. For now, Snake-san, while your mission was a success, I only wish that you would at least try to get along with you teammates as they also have to continue their own mission of looking after you," the Hokage smiled sweetly at him. "After all, you were Konoha's number one traitor and enemy for a while. It will take some time before I could actually let you do what you want."

The room was filled with the Hokage's threatening aura, daring the ANBU to fight back. Smartly, the nin kept his mouth shut.

Lifting his threatening gaze, Naruto smiled happily them. "Well, now that you have given your report, we could all go home now." He then turned to Hinata, who was now standing next to Hawk, and shared a knowing look with her. "I will see you next time then, Hinata-chan. And while I know you are fully capable of protecting yourself, I couldn't let a woman walk home without an escort now, could I. So I'm sure Hawk-san and Dog-san would be delighted to do so."

Without hesitation, Hawk and Dog bowed to the Hokage and moved to follow the Hyuga Heiress. Before Hinata walked out the door, she turned to Naruto and gave him a secretive and encouraging smile. "Until we meet again, Hokage-sama, and good luck." After those questionable words were said, Hinata walked out with her escorts close at her heels.

The moment the door closed, Snake gave out a sigh of relief and sat down on the chair the Hyuga had been using moments ago. Snake gave a tug on his mask and let it fall to the floor. Ruffling his hair into its usual hairstyle, Uchiha Sasuke gave a curious look at his red-faced friend. "What did the Hyuga mean by 'good luck'?"

Since the important business part was over, they could allow themselves to act as they usually would around each other: Naruto as his goofy self and Sasuke with his brooding personality.

But right now, Naruto was not acting like how he usually acted. And that made Sasuke squint his eyes suspiciously at his friend. The hero of Konoha, ex-carrier of the nine-tailed fox, was blushing madly like a school girl in love. Sasuke scowled at the thought: Naruto, in love? If that was it, why hadn't HE heard of it. This person whom Naruto was crushing about. He doesn't believe one bit that Naruto would not tell him about it.

Naruto was now stammering some kind of reply, but Sasuke did not stop his thought to listen to him blabber about something entirely different. 'Could it be the Hyuga? Naruto did started turning red after her little comment.'

Being the opposite of the person he is, which is someone who doesn't care much about anything at all, he bluntly asked, "Are you in love with the Hyuga?"

All sound stopped at the Uchiha's question, before Naruto stood and slammed his hands on the desk. "WHAAAAATTT?!" the usually calm Hokage's voice echoed across the village.

Sasuke sat knowingly on his chair, fully expecting this reaction, but he was definitely surprised when his friend suddenly started rambling about ramen and dragged him towards the door and soon out of the building.

While he knew without a doubt they'd go to Ichiraku for dinner, he was puzzled when he realized that they were going the wrong way. As soon as he started to tell Naruto, he remembered that there was no way Naruto would forget the way to his precious Ichiraku Ramen.

Sasuke sighed in amused defeat. "We're not going to Ichiraku, are we."

Naruto grinned at him, swinging his arm over Sasuke's shoulder. "Nope!"


	3. Chapter 2

**Beyond the Gates of Hell**

**Chapter 2**

The setting sun hovered just above the Hokage Mountain. Its rays bathed the entire of Konoha in a mix of red and orange hues. Adults and children alike had returned to their homes from work and school, sitting around the table for dinner with their loved ones. Few Konoha nins with different ranks were passing the main gates after a hard day of missions. Even the perpetually busy ANBU were either with their families or getting some much needed rest after being dismissed by their blond leader.

The Hokage, on the other hand, was far from his warm home next to the Hokage Tower and much, much more farther from feeling tired. Excitement and frustration rolled off him in waves. Excitement, because he was just steps away from his destination. Frustration, because his partner didn't seem to want to move any further.

Anyone who happen to walk into the scene in front of them would quickly cover their mouths to keep from laughing and walk away as stoically as possible. While they do, they would erase the memory from their minds out of fear that the Hokage's partner would hunt them in their sleep.

Everyone knew that the Uchiha was a very short-tempered person and that it wouldn't take long for him to lose his patience, judging from the murderous aura directed at the blond.

"Awww, come on, Sasuke! Don't be such a baby!" said blond wailed at him, trying to pull him towards the house in front of him.

"No way in hell!" the Uchiha snarled back, bracing himself against the stone wall that connected the house to the street. He took another look at the seemingly peaceful and quiet house. There was no light inside the house, suggesting that there was no one inside. But Sasuke knew otherwise.

Even from where he stood, he could see movement in the house. The rushed whispers and hushed giggles were more than enough to proof of life. Sasuke also knew that the joker in front of him would've noticed it a mile away, yet he chose to ignore it and kept trying to drag him into that house.

That pretty much made Sasuke more and more suspicious. His grip on the stone wall tightened an inch, hoping that his idiot friend didn't notice. Naruto instantly let go of Sasuke, backing away from him. The action put Sasuke on guard. 'Since when did Naruto give up that easily?'

Naruto raised an eyebrow as if Sasuke had spoken out loud. "Oi, Sasuke!" the blond grinned at him mischievously at him and stepped closer to him. Naruto placed his hand on the wall beside Sasuke's head and leaned closer to him, his mouth right beside the Uchiha's ear. "You afraid?" he whispered daringly at the wide-eyed yet still calm Uchiha.

Said Uchiha scoffed at his friend's actions and placed his hand on Naruto's face to harshly push him away, not thinking much about the shiver that ran down his back. He strode towards the dark house in front of him, ignoring Naruto's smug expression. Still feeling suspicious, he slowly reached out towards the doorknob. Before he could touch it though, Naruto suddenly appeared right behind him and kicked the door open. The duo were instantly assaulted by ribbons and sparkling glitter in many bright colors. Joyful shouts of "SUPPRISE!" were yelled towards the frozen Uchiha and laughing Uzumaki.

Sasuke should have known better to have run for the hills when he woke up that morning. Especially when their group of friends were full of jokers and pranksters. Turning to make his escape, Sasuke faced his blond best friend. Naruto was smiling softly at him, as if he knew what exactly what the Uchiha was thinking.

"Come on, Sasuke." Naruto said just as softly, "Just let the people who care about you celebrate the fact that you're still here with us."

Sasuke was taken aback, but nodded anyway before walking into the house, surrounded by happy familiar faces. He took one more glance outside only to see Naruto with the same look on his face and the Hyuga walking outside to talk to him, before snapping his face away from the sight. 'Of course,' Sasuke thought distractedly, 'he would want to stay outside with the person he likes rather than to endure this party with his best friend.' Somehow, that thought disturbed him.

Sasuke was then snapped out of his thoughts when someone pushed him into a very big couch and a few nameless kunouchi came up to him with colorful wrapped boxes, asking him to unwrap them. And so he did, only out of curiosity to see what these people who hardly knew him would get him as a gift. He received a lot of useless things like bright colored clothes, sweet-flavored snacks, and even a small statue of Naruto in his Hokage robes.

The only thing he could actually appreciate was a box filled with sharpened and polished weapons of different types which was given by the Konoha 12. While Sasuke was looking through the box with Neji and TenTen, he saw Naruto with Hinata and Kiba at the other side of the room, apparently laughing at something he said.

Sasuke turned his head towards the box with a cold look on his face, in time to catch what the Weapons Mistress was asking. "So, what do you think about your gift from all of us, Sasuke-san?" she smiled at him.

Sasuke looked at the couple in front of him. "It's the only thing I will be actually bringing back with me. I'm sure that already says a lot about the gift." He smirked at them.

TenTen nodded at his statement, but Neji smirked back at him. "Good choice, Uchiha."

Even though the party was supposed to be a closed affair with only the Konoha 13 and their teachers, a lot of people had heard about the party that was being held for the last Uchiha and that most of the heroes of the war were going to attend. Those party-crashes all brought random gifts in hopes of mingling with them.

The party, which was held in the Nara household, was now packed. The usually lazy shadow-user was running all around the house collecting priceless and breakable objects that had 'almost' met with unfortunate accidents and placing them in a locked room where they would be safe from more accidents.

After placing one of the last valuable object in the room, Shikamaru leaned against the wall next to the door, trying to catch his breath and cursing every person who was enjoying themselves at his expanse. "Whose troublesome idea was it to have the party here anyway?!" he yelled at what he thought was an empty hallway, his hands on his knees.

"If I remember correctly," an amused voice echoed through the hallway, "you said it was a GREAT idea, Shika."

Shikamaru lifted his head to see his girlfriend standing there with her hands on her hips, a sly smile on her lips. He scoffed at her statement, amusement in his eyes. "I would agree with you," he smirked at her, as he stood up straighter, "if I actually remembered it."

Ino Yamanaka smiled seductively at him before walking towards him, her hips swaying. "Well," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck as he instantly wrapped his around her waist, drawing them closer. "I remember asking you if we could use your house to hold Sasuke-kun's party since your parents are not going to be home," Ino whispered, her lips inches away from his.

"Hmm…and what did I say?" Shikamaru whispered back, a full blown smirk on his face.

Ino smiled at him before moving forward to brush her lips against his. "You said yes," she replied before pulling away from him and walking back to where her friends were. Before she could walk another step though, her boyfriend pulled her back towards him.

"You call that a kiss?" the Nara whispered, raising his eyebrow.

Ino blushed a little before smirking up at him. "Well, I didn't come in here to kiss you, so just think of that as an extra thanks for letting us use the house for the party."

Shikamaru stared at her, puzzled yet not affected by her words. "Then why DID you come here?"

She smiled at him. "I thought that you should know that I saw a couple of guys tossing around the round vase your dad gave your mom for their 15th Anniversary."

That snapped Shikamaru out of it as he paled at the thought, muttering more curses as he walked towards these 'guys', pulling his giggling girlfriend along. As they re-entered the living room, they noticed that the lights were off and everyone was crowded to the middle of the large dark room.

Sasuke was seated in the same couch he was pushed into, but now he had Naruto and Sakura on either side of him. Hinata and TenTen had entered the room, coming from another door. The sweet dessert the Hyuga was holding had a bright light which was provided by the candles on it, casting some source of light to the room.

The cake has exactly 19 candles on it, indicating just how old the young man was. As it was placed in front of him, Sasuke seemed to have sunk deeper into the couch as two of his teammates moved closer to the cake.

"Wow, Hinata-chan!" Naruto smiled up at her, "You've out done yourself this time! This looks delicious! Isn't that right? Sakura-chan. Sasuke." Sakura nodded quickly, agreeing with Naruto. Sasuke stared at the Hyuga and suddenly felt a black mood descend upon him after all her hogging of Naruto today.

Hinata seemed to have read his mind as she stared back at him, her sweet smile never wavering. "Thank you. Naruto-kun. Sakura-chan." She bowed her head politely, before turning towards the man seated in the middle. "Happy 19th Birthday, Uchiha-san, I hope you would have a good year with your loved ones," she smiled coldly at him.

Sasuke knew instantly that he was the receiver of that smile and that no one else had notice the small drop in temperature as it lasted only for a second. Nevertheless, he still nodded his head, not out of thanks for the cake but rather for his teammates' sake, for they would lecture him if he didn't show any appreciation to the Hyuga.

There was a much lesser amount of people now that it was nearing midnight. Naruto took one look at the clock on the wall before starting the customary birthday song, not wanting to miss Sasuke's date of birth before he could even blow out the candles. When the song ended, everybody cheered as Sasuke reluctantly moved forward to blow the candles out. Suddenly, a hand smacked Sasuke's forehead with a loud slap, freezing everyone in place, and wondering who was daring enough to do it.

"Did you make a wish?" Naruto's playful voice echoed through the room.

Sasuke should have known his friend would pull something like this. So instead of losing his temper, he smirked at Naruto, "Yup." Pulling the hand which was on his forehead, he placed his other hand behind Naruto's head and pushed it downwards into the cake.

For a second time that night, silence filled the air, yet again freezing everyone in place. But it only lasted for a second until Naruto pulled his head out from the cake and yelled, "Wow, it IS delicious!"

Within seconds, the whole house thundered with laughter. As everyone congratulated Sasuke, Hinata brought out a second larger cake, claiming that she was worried for the first cake since this was Naruto they were talking about. After the cake was cut and shared, people started to go home till only the main people who were invited were left.

That was when someone brought out the alcohol. They suspected that it was most probably Tsunade-sama, their ex-Hokage, since they saw her hugging a bottle close to her chest and singing loudly with Jiraiya-sensei with Shizune-san keeping watch.

By the time it was three in the morning, the only one who seemed to be sober were Sasuke, Shikamaru, Ino and Hinata. Everyone else were either still drinking or passed out. Sasuke, Shikamaru and Hinata had all chose not to drink because they knew someone had to watch out for the others who did. Ino wanted to drink, but since it was her idea to have the party at the Nara Household, Shikamaru made sure that she didn't even get to touch a drop of alcohol.

"Luckily your parents won't be coming back until tomorrow, right, Shika!" Ino groan tiredly to her boyfriend. "We would have the WHOLE day to clean up." They were sitting on the floor, Ino in between Shikamaru's legs and his forehead on Ino's shoulder. He cursed quietly at the thought of 'clean up'. "No way." he moaned, not moving his head. "We could make whoever who stayed over do it and we would supervise."

Ino chucked at him, before lying back on his chest. "Good idea. We start at noon then," she managed to finish before joining her boyfriend in dreamland.

Hinata smiled softly at the scene in front of her. Most of the people were starting to pass out on any comfortable place they could find. Neji-nii had already passed out a long time ago followed by Kiba-kun and Shino-kun hours later. Even Tsunade-sama was sleeping with her head on Jiraiya-sensei's shoulder. She wanted to let Shikamaru-kun know that hers and Neji-nii's teammates were all going to stay the night since there was no way she could possibly carry all of them back to separate houses but since she saw Shikamaru and Ino sleeping peacefully, she thought it was better to tell him tomorrow.

Taking another look around the room, she saw a sober Sasuke, glaring at anything that moved and right now, his eyes were on Naruto, who looked sober but the swaying gave him away. Sakura was passed out next to Sasuke, her entire upper body lying on his lap.

Hinata held back a giggle as she stood up and walked towards them. As she sat on the stool in front of them, Sasuke's glare was instantly on her. She smiled at him and Naruto. "Do you need some help with Sakura-chan, Uchiha-san?" she asked politely at him.

Before Sasuke could say anything, Naruto jumped in his seat and yelled, "Sakura-chan!?" Hinata and Sasuke looked at him. "I need to get Sakura-chan home before sunrise." he explained to them. "Or her parents would kill me!" he yelled.

"Aren't Sakura-chan's parents civilians?" Hinata asked him, smiling amusingly.

Naruto was silenced by that, before he grinned back at them. "Ok, fine. You caught me," he said, throwing his hands up. "But I did promise them that I will get Sakura-chan home before sunrise. So, come on, Sasuke! Help me out here!"

"No way. YOU promised them, so YOU get her back."

"Aww, come on! Don't be selfish!"

"I'll follow you, but I'm not going to do ANYTHING."

"She's not THAT heavy anyway."

"I didn't say she was heavy, you did."

"Shit! Don't tell Sakura-chan I said that."

"Why not. She's going to kill you anyway when she wakes up with a hangover."

"Why you-" Naruto stopped his rant when he noticed something. "Hey! Where is Sakura-chan anyway?"

"Over here," a soft voice answered. Both of the young men turned their heads towards it.

Hinata and Sakura were standing right next to the door which lead to the restroom. Well, Hinata was standing and Sakura was still asleep. The Hyuga had the pink-haired girl's arm over her shoulder and her arm was around the sleeping girl's waist to hold her up. "Are you done with your lovers' spat?" Hinata smiled sweetly at them. "I took Sakura-chan to wash up a little so that she wouldn't smell too much like sake."

Both men decided to ignore the lovers comment as Naruto walked silently towards Hinata to carry Sakura on his back. "Thanks, Hinata-chan. I'll see you next time then." Naruto smiled as he kissed her cheek before walking out.

Sasuke followed after glancing at Hinata. He didn't like the knowing look on her face. 'And what was with that kiss?' he thought.

By the time Sasuke had caught up with Naruto, the blond was deep in thought. Sasuke kept glancing at him, wondering if he should snap him out of it. Before he could say anything though, Naruto suddenly snapped his head up and looked at him. "What did you wish for?" he blurted out.

Sasuke was taken aback by the question. "What?"

"Before you smashed my head into the cake," he said casually, "I asked if you had made a wish, and you said yes." Sasuke kept quiet and faced forward as he walked. Naruto looked at him. "You didn't really think about it, did you." Naruto smiled softly and turned his head to look straight ahead. "I should have known. After all, you wouldn't be Sasuke if you had actually thought about what you would want for your birthday wish." Naruto turned his head towards his silent friend to see if he was still listening. "You would just work for what you want, right, Sasuke?"

Sasuke continued to stay silent before changing the topic entirely. "When were you going to tell me about you and that Hyuga?" he asked just as casually.

Naruto stopped walking and looked at him. "THAT Hyuga?"

"Unless THAT Hyuga is Neji Hyuga, then yeah. When were you going to tell me that you are going out with THAT Hyuga. I'm surprised that you're interested in men," Sasuke said sarcastically, unaware that his joke had hit a nerve in his best friend.

"So what if I am." Naruto looked at seriously at his so called best friend, pissed beyond belief.

Sasuke stopped walking altogether and turned towards the person he thought he knew so much about, eyes wide with disbelief. "Bullshit!" he blurted out. " You and Neji Hyuga-"

"What! No, of course not -" Naruto opened and closed his mouth like fish out of water.

"Then who is it? Are you lying to me about being GAY so that that I won't find out about you and THAT female Hyuga!" Sasuke yelled at him, his calm and patience out the window just like that.

Naruto glared at Sasuke so hard that Sasuke actually flinched. "THAT female Hyuga is Hinata Hyuga, Heiress of the elite Hyuga Clan and the Hokage of Konoha's adviser. And as for me, Hinata-chan is ten times the friend you ever will be."

"So that's how it is then? Well, you know what. If birthday wishes were true, I wish that I would never see you in front my face ever again!" Sasuke bellowed, rage taking over his mind.

He would later regret ever saying those words.

Everything stopped after those words were uttered. Even though the swirling wind picked up speed, the leaves on the trees remained unmoving and the temperature dropped well below freezing level. Instantly dropping whatever they were fighting about, they stood on high alert, turning their backs against each other so that Sakura was in the middle.

In that same moment, a round circle that emitted a red light opened up under their feet. Naruto's and Sasuke's figures blurred as they jumped away from it in opposite directions. Sasuke stood on the stone wall, while Naruto leaned against the wall in front of Sasuke, making sure Sakura was between him and the wall. Both were staring intently at the circle until, just as suddenly, hundreds of hand shot out from the hole. All the hands were different from each other. There were small and large, young and old, thin and fat, bones and flesh. There are even some that were either burned, bitten, cut, broken and corroded with acid.

The hands moved in different directions but all seemed to be searching for something. Naruto and Sasuke stood silently and alert, waiting for something to happen. Either they were waiting to see which one of them would speak first or waiting to see if the hands would reach them, they did not know. After what seemed like hours, the hands froze up as if they found what they were looking for before withdrawing back into the red light in the ground, the hole closing up as they left.

Sasuke and Naruto did not ease up, for the world around them was still frozen unnaturally. Before the two friends could say anything, a loud scream of agony pierced their still world. Both knew, with a sense of dread, who the voice belonged to: Sakura had awakened from her alcohol-induced sleep.

Before Naruto could turn his head to see what caused it, he felt it first. It was like someone had placed an hot iron on him, only it was everywhere. The hands were much faster this time, instead of waiting for the red hole to open, it caught on to anything that was alive. By the time they could even blink, hundreds of hand had already grabbed a hold of Naruto and Sakura, all appearing from the wall behind them.

Only then did the red hole appear, right where the hands were coming from, as if to throw them off when it did not appear earlier. Sasuke instantly jumped towards his tortured teammates, their screams of pain filling his ears. At the same time, Sasuke noticed with dread, the hands were retracting. Only this time, they had Naruto and Sakura with them.

All at once, their world started moving again, the leaves were flying in every direction and the temperature shot up till it was unbearably hot. Naruto and Sakura's screams echoed all across Konoha, sending jolts of fear to civilians and alertness to Shinobis. More shouts of rapture, sadness, pain and insanity came from inside the red hole which prompted the Shinobis to get a move-on towards the noise.

By the time Sasuke had reached them, the hands had almost entirely swallowed up Sakura and only Naruto's face and an arm was visible. Sasuke grabbed on to Naruto's free arm and pulled with all his strength, but it was no use, it was one versus an army.

As if the world slowed again, Sasuke looked at his best friend's face in panic. Naruto took one look at Sasuke's face and smiled. Sasuke read that smile loud and clear. 'I'd forgive you anyway.'

That was the last thing Sasuke saw before the hole closed up, leaving him to hold nothing but empty air in front of the stone wall. He didn't care who or what would hear him.

"NARUTOOO!"


End file.
